Lloyd, KP lament player exodus to T20

Legendary West Indian captain Clive Lloyd has blamed a lack of first-class warm-up fixtures and the defection of so many experienced players from the Caribbean to global Twenty20 franchise competitions for his former team’s poor results in the current Test series.

And his thoughts have been echoed by ex-England star Kevin Pietersen, who has gone even further and called on the International Cricket Council to step in and compel the likes of Windies stars Chris Gayle and Andre Russell to play Test cricket.

As well as ensure Test cricketers are paid more than those who command huge pay cheques in T20 competitions such as the Indian Premier League and the KFC Big Bash League.

Lloyd, who led the West Indies in a record of 74 Tests during their era of world dominance from the mid-70s to 1985, was recently appointed to the role of chairman of selectors in a bid to stem the decline of a team that has won just four Test series (two each against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe) away from home this century.

Clive Lloyd discusses decline of West Indies cricket

However, with one Test remaining on their current Australia tour the West Indies have yet to record a win and it is thought they might be consigned to playing at regional venues on future Australian visits, outside the traditional summer period in which they were once the game’s biggest drawcard.

Lloyd, who arrived in Australia for last week’s Boxing Day Test in Melbourne that Australia won by 177 runs inside four days, claimed the West Indies had been afforded insufficient opportunities to acclimatise to weather and playing conditions in Australia.

The schedule for the current tour, the terms of which are agreed to by Cricket Australia and the West Indies Cricket Board through a memorandum of understanding signed by both parties before the tour begins, saw the tourists play a four-day warm-up match against a young CA XI in Brisbane prior to the opening Test in Hobart.

And then a further two-day game against an equally inexperienced Victoria XI in Geelong before the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.

Likewise, when Australia toured the Caribbean last June to play two Test matches, they played a single three-day warm-up game against a WICB President’s XI in Antigua before ending their three-week campaign with a 2-0 Test series victory.

"If a team comes to any country they should be able to play enough warm-up games to get accustomed to the conditions," Lloyd said during a media conference at the SCG today.

"We’ve travelled 12,000 miles and it’s different here.

"We had jetlag, there’s the heat, the hardness of the grounds, it’s just getting accustomed to a lot of things and two four-day games would probably have put us in good stead.

"It showed in the last game (in Melbourne) we batted fairly well on a pretty good Test pitch so I’m sure the guys will give a good account of themselves in the long run.

"But it will take some time to build a Test team because ... (around) 10 of our players are playing the one-day format of the game and we have to try and look to build a team that’s going to stand us in good stead for the future."

Lloyd said that in addition to allowing the West Indies players to become better accustomed to the unique conditions in Australia, the absence of multiple first-class fixtures in the tour schedule meant the squad had no opportunity to gauge the form of players not included in the initial Test XI.

He added that when his West Indian team was at the peak of its powers in the 1980s – before South Africa, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh were playing Tests and there was no T20 tournaments to further clutter the playing schedule – they would arrive in Australia "in September or October and left in February".

"The point is we played a lot of games, we got accustomed to the conditions and you give a good account of yourself," Lloyd said.

"These tours are so short these days that you just play one four-day game then Test match, Test match, Test match then go into the one-dayers."

Lloyd singled out former skipper Chris Gayle, the only West Indian batsmen to have scored two Test triple centuries, allrounder Andre Russell and batsman Lendl Simmons as players who might figure in the current Test team had they not confirmed their preference to play the T20 format.

But he added that if the trio was interested in resuming their Test careers they would first need to make themselves available for the domestic first-class competition in the Caribbean, which has itself suffered of late from the loss of talent and experience to the global franchise tournaments.

"You can’t fault them," Lloyd said of those players such as Gayle, Russell, Simmons, Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy who have turned their back on Test cricket.

"The money that is being paid in these shorter games, it’s obvious that players are looking towards their future.

"And unfortunately we’re missing out, all those guys who we groomed have now left so we’re left with a vacuum and we now have to fill that.

"People might say that we’re not a top-class side but some of these guys have only played four Test matches and we can’t bring anybody from home because they’ll be just as raw, or young.

"That’s the situation we have, we have guys like Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Chris Gayle, Bravo and these fellas, they’ve retired from the longer form of the game. 

"I think somebody like Russell surely we would have had a chat with him, but he has a problem with his knee and he’s just playing one-day cricket. 

"Lendl Simmons too would have been a nice guy to have in the middle there because he’s an opener, he plays spin very well, he would have fitted in fine with our (Test) batting. 

"But he’s not involved, so we’ve got to look somewhere else. 

"It’s a bit of a sad situation but I’m sure that our cricket will get better."

Pietersen, who had his 104-Test career porematurely terminated by England’s selectors last year, told reporters in Melbourne today that he believed the ICC should step in to ensure the experienced West Indian players lost to T20 cricket are offered the same financial incentives to play Tests.

"I think that the ICC needs to take on the responsibility to make sure those players are accommodated and they play the longest form of the game," Pietersen said ahead of the upcoming BBL Melbourne derby that will feature Gayle and Bravo. 

"They're the ones that govern the game - the West Indies doesn't govern cricket. 

"But the ICC controls world cricket and they should say 'right, we need Gayle, we need even (Kieron) Pollard, we need (Darren) Sammy, we need (Dwayne) Bravo'. 

"Andre Russell was bowling 150kph and whacking big sixes in the Big Bash but he should be doing that in a Test match. 

"He shouldn’t be doing it here (in the BBL). 

"It's just a sad state of affairs that these guys here who are star attractions all around the world and they command big numbers from T20 franchises. 

"It's just sad they're not playing the longer form of the game.

"Test players should be paid a helluva lot of money, that’s the only way they're going to get the guys back playing. 

"They should get paid so much more money than we get paid for playing domestic tournaments."

Pietersen also singled out Gayle, who had used his column in Fairfax Media to point out he hits the ball further and is a superior entertainer to the former England batsman, to challenge the star West Indian opener to return to Test ranks where he has not played since September, 2014.

"I'd pay to watch him play," Pietersen said of Gayle when asked about the Jamaican’s provocative newspaper claims.

"Those are the kind of guys you actually need in Test match cricket. (They're) wasted in the Big Bash.

"It's a big shame that that guy is playing here (at the MCG) tomorrow and he's not playing in Sydney (in the third Test) because he should be playing Test match cricket. 

"It's a shame that stars like that are not playing the biggest forms of the game."

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